National Moth Week

This week is National Moth Week, seven days of mothing across the continent (and around the world!) in celebration of these diverse creatures. From now through Monday the 29th, turn on your porch light, put out a blacklight and sheet, mix up some sugar bait, or just search your yard to see what moths you can detect. Or, if you’d rather, join in one of the public mothing events scheduled for your area.

Reigster your event and report what you find after it’s done. Don’t worry if you can’t identify many species! Moth’ers of all skill levels are encouraged to join in and have fun seeing and learning something new. All registered participants are eligible to win a signed book – many authors, including myself, have donated books to the event that will be given away by random draw at the end of the week. You can check in at the NMW official blog to see what’s going on in other areas during moth week.

I had been hoping to run a public event myself, but it didn’t work out timing-wise – it’s been a busy period for me recently. Still, I’ll be turning on my lights a few times and recording what I see. Last night I was at my parents’ house and put out my light for a few hours to kick of NMW. We’d just had a rainstorm roll through late in the afternoon so abundance was lower, but there was still good diversity. The indisputable highlight for me was this Chestnut Schizura (Schizura badia), a lifer for me and a species neither Dave nor I had photos of when we prepared the field guide so we had to solicit one from someone else. It’s nice to add it to my digital collection!

Seabrooke Leckie
I am a biologist and naturalist, writer and photographer, but most of all a lover of nature. I live on 130 rural acres in eastern Ontario, surrounded by woods and meadows that are my inspiration. I try to hike our land nearly every day, and I always carry my camera with me. I enjoy sharing my discoveries here.
More about me.